Compromise Deal in the Works on Ramot Shopping Center Boycott

(Thursday, July 4th, 2013)

It would appear the cherem placed on the Ramot Yerushalayim Kenyon Ramot Shopping Center by prominent community rabbonim has persuaded management to talk a deal. The rabbonim felt the shopping center was not meeting basic community tznius and after dialogue failed to compel management to comply with the directives of rabbonim, the cherem was announced. The managers of the shopping center are now signaling a willingness to reach a compromise agreement with the rabbonim. Despite an announced secular activist call to assist the shopping center, the managers realized without the chareidi shoppers, the mall has no future.

Maariv reports that with the assistance of senor City Hall mayoral advisors, the managers of the center have been holding talks with representatives of the rabbonim towards ending the cherem. Among the concessions by management is a willingness to refrain from playing female singers on the public address system and to make certain that events hosted in the mall for children will conform with community tznius standards. Employees in the various stores will be permitted to dress as they see fit. A mashgiach will be appointed to ensure compliance.

The Rabbonim take very seriously their responsibility to protect the neshomos of their constituents from harmful influences, so I don’t see what incentive they have to compromise or how much room they have to compromise. This seems like a good example of what former Kineset speaker Rivlin said in another item today, that the Chareidim by the weight of their numbers and economic power have have a lot of power over what goes on in this country. Hashem ya’azor.

Shimen, I didn’t know we can tell people what to do. Can I tell you to dress as a ninja fighter this shabbos in shul? How about telling people to only wear white shirts everydat to shul? But on a serious note, as we learn from so many beautiful weekly parshios,Moshe and Aharon certainly couldn’t tell the Bnei Yisroel what to do, and we learned the consequences. In conclusion, unless you are a dictator of a country, you can’t tell people what to do.